(Vatican Radio) A Holy See delegation, led by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, on Monday joined other world leaders in NY for a high level Summit hosted by the UN General Assembly to address issues related to large scale movements of refugees and migrants.
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With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time since World War II, global leaders on Monday approved a declaration aimed at providing a more coordinated and humane response to the refugee crisis that has strained resources and stoked divisions from Africa to Europe.
“Today’s summit represents a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility”, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his opening remarks Monday.
Ms. May is set to propose three policies: ensuring genuine refugees claim asylum in the first safe country they reach in a bid to stop their exploitation by smuggling gangs; a clearer distinction drawn between refugees and economic migrants; and upholding the right of all countries to control their borders, along with a responsibility to stop illegal migration flows.
The declaration adopted in NY seeks to increase support to countries most affected by the crisis, to help displaced children get access to education and to boost humanitarian funding and the resettlement of refugees.
In this September 16, 2016 file photo, hundreds of life jackets line the shore of the New York City waterfront in the Brooklyn borough of New York, placed there by advocates with Oxfam America to draw attention to the refugee crisis.
Meanwhile, Parliament Square in London was this morning transformed into a “graveyard of life jackets” using 2,500 jackets worn by refugees crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios. Of course, he points out, they had to be the States where refugees could make a living – Europe, United States and Australia – but that did not come about. The U.S. and a number of other countries also objected to language in the original draft that said children should never be detained, so the agreement now says children should seldom, if ever, be detained.
They said the summit was a “historic opportunity to garner the political will of world leaders to save lives, protect rights and share responsibility on a global scale”. “The U.N. summit has been sabotaged by states acting in self-interest, leaving millions of refugees in dire situations around the world on the edge of a precipice”, Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said in a statement.
By setting out her plan, Mrs May is laying down an early marker as the United Nations begins two years of negotiations on politically binding compacts on refugees and migrants.
“While we all wish it could be a stronger outcome document. all 193 member states had to agree on their commitment”.
Unfortunately, Father Gallagher concludes, at a Summit such as the one taking place in NY “what you will get are a lot of canned speeches – they never really talk to each other at a meeting like that (…) you speak about what is your government position, not what you like to see done”. Some of these include: increasing support for hardest-hit countries; assisting despairing people in protected crises; education for children; improving search and rescue operations; boosting humanitarian funding and resettlement of refugees. He’ll address the U.N. General Assembly on Monday on the continued plight of migrants and refugees.
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Prior to the pledging summit with world leaders, Obama will host a meeting with top executives from 50 companies to discuss what the private sector can do to help address the problem, Power said. Failing the long-suffering people of Syria, in not ending the war in its infancy.
